Stance, Distance and Angle
A joyful and prosperous new year to all my followers! I have noticed for some time that I have been preferring certain angles of attack during my training. This is a natural consequence of staying mindful of the opponent's centre line and the limbs that you have to get past when attacking. For a long time, especially in one's early years of Karate, we get used to square off with our sparring partners. Free sparring at this stage is then usually a manner of moving back and forth with the most dominating fighter driving his opponent back most of the time. Sooner or later we realise, however, that while increasing the distance between ourselves and our opponent's may keep us safe for a while that safety does not last and- we find it impossible to counterattack from so far away. One of the reasons why I choose a slightly long stance is that the space between my feet give me enough room to make the space that I need to move back just far enough to counter with a kick. That dista...